Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, the settings, and majority of the plot so don't sue me please?

He loved her at first because he was told to love her. He wasn't even sure how young he had been, obviously at least two because she was two years younger than him. But he knew he loved all three of the Black girls because it was expected that as a pureblood he admire them, fancy that he was in love with them. They had pure blood, they had money, they had a good family for the most part, and they were beautiful.


When he was seventeen, he made the reckless decision that he loved Bellatrix the most. It wasn't something he should have done; after all he was less than three months engaged to her next younger sister, Andromeda. But Bella was fifteen and bored, and he was seventeen and still assured by his society that he was in love with all three of them. Sweet Merlin where had she learned how to move like that? With his mind in a hormonal rage, he thought he loved her most of the three Black sisters.


Take me to him, she'd demanded, still a young, fiery thing. She was only seventeen. He was nineteen. And he looked into those insistent grey eyes as she leaned closer and closer to him. He hesitated. She dropped into his lap and he swallowed as she began to wiggle in a way that she had to know would get a response. She asked Rodolphus to take her to him again, this time her voice in a purr. Fine he agreed and suddenly she was off his lap. She insisted on going right then and couldn't be distracted or otherwise persuaded, especially not by Rodolphus's sudden desire or embarrassment. But she promised a reward if he took her now. And as he grabbed her arm to direct her apparition, he realized he loved her because she kept her mind on what she wanted and how to get it; at the same time, he hated her for the exact same thing.


He watched her kill someone, a muggle, as cold air blew through Macnair's house from the January winter. The Dark Lord had commanded that Bellatrix be the one to kill her, the old, nosy muggle; Bellatrix needed to prove herself. Rodolphus's eyes followed her, this girl who had just turned eighteen, remembering how he had quaked the first time he had been commanded the same thing. But she didn't shiver in the slightest. Only the slight tremble in her voice registered any conflict in her mind; he couldn't see her eyes. The old woman fell and Bellatrix looked up and he saw her eyes full of guilt mixed with pleasure. And he knew he loved her for her dedication to the cause, dedicated enough to find pleasure in the guilt.


Bellatrix was a delightfully physical creature and he realized sharply how much he loved her for it. Her sister Andromeda was not. But he had tried to move beyond his feelings for Bellatrix, tried to find the passion that must lie within her younger sister, the one he was supposed to marry. She fought him as he struggled for even a kiss after a dinner during her Christmas break. Her words of commandment, however, were for her younger cousins, imploring him to leave them alone when they tried to jump to her defense; she was using them as her excuse to get away and they both knew it. He realized as this brunette girl with Bellatrix's eyes skittered away from him, buttoning her robes where he had managed to force them open, that he loved her older sister for being physical where Andromeda was not.


Her hair was mussed, her robes weren't buttoned right, and her face was flushed. If he squinted, he really could pretend that he was looking at Bellatrix. But again, Andromeda pushed him away. It infuriated him. She had obviously been with someone though she kept denying it. As much as she looked like Bellatrix, why couldn't she have her sister's honesty? Bellatrix never lied about another man; Andromeda did. He gave up on his ambition to love Andromeda like he loved Bellatrix then and there.


Her scream echoed through the Black's dining room as her eyes grew unfocused. Lucius looked terrified, Rabastan looked amused, and Bellatrix looked wild. Narcissa was yelling at her oldest sister to stop. Bellatrix ignored her so it was Narcissa who sent a stunner at Andromeda. The Cruciatus Curse would work on a sleeping victim but not one who was knocked unconscious. The mind needed to be working at a higher level than completely unresponsive. Bellatrix still looked furious and Rodolphus understood her fury. He couldn't imagine what he would resort to if he found out Rabastan had chosen a mudblood. He glanced down at the ground, at the pale version of Bellatrix, the bookworm brunette, and knew he would never love her again. He realized he loved Bellatrix and her wildness. And he finally had a way to get Bellatrix instead of Andromeda.


Their wedding day Bellatrix was calm and quiet. She was neither sad nor happy. She was only there. And he realized he wanted her all the more, loved her all the more because he had to make her love him.


He tuned out of the trial until he heard her voice. Even then as they were sentenced to remain without magic, without hope, without a life, she stuck to the cause. She reminded Crouch that the Dark Lord would come back. And he knew he loved her, as always, for her fire. But a part of him wondered if she would stay just as loyal to him. He knew the answer was no; the Dark Lord was the only one she loved with all her heart; even her sisters had fallen away.


The Dementors had gone away for some reason. He couldn't figure out why and he sank down on the ground, calling out names in an attempt to find one that sounded familiar, one he thought might belong to him. And then he saw her, his angel in gray robes with dark hair wild about her face. She was a figure from a dream, a good dream perhaps that he'd had long ago. She had a name as well but it wasn't Rodolphus. No, that was his name he decided as she led him out the door. He followed dumbly, unable to comprehend what she was saying, just knowing he was in love with the angel who had rescued him and was leading him to the Dark Lord who had rescued her.


She told him about her distrust of Severus Snape, how she had followed Narcissa to where that traitorous half-blood lived to watch her sister beg and plead with him. He watched her roll her eyes in disgust at her younger sister's actions. Rodolphus didn't dare ask what Narcissa was asking Snape for; he knew well enough that Bellatrix would think it disloyal for him to even ask what the Dark Lord had not revealed to him personally. But he agreed with her about Snape on all of her points, agreed with her where apparently the Dark Lord didn't. And for one night, she loved him as he thought she would if he were truly her husband in anything more than law. He realized he loved her the most when he held all of her affections in his pocket and he hoped he would get all of her again, but he knew he wouldn't. The Dark Lord was all she truly cared about. He was only a substitute for the night.


It was her job to clean up the mistakes in her family but the Dark Lord had given the mudblood to him, had told him to take care of the creature that had stolen the other Black sister, stolen Andromeda, from him. But the filthy creature began to speak, his eyes narrowed. Rodolphus recognized the tone. The man was manipulating him and yet he felt himself being pulled forward, like a cat inching toward a string he knew would be pulled away as soon as he pounced. He was reminded by Andromeda's husband that the mudblood in front of him was the only one who had gotten one of the Black sisters to fall in love with him, reminded him that he didn't even have chance at getting Bellatrix on his own. The filth was taunting Rodolphus. He was offering to help, that was the string in front of him, but Bellatrix grew tired of their dance. She jumped in and killed Ted Tonks while Rodolphus dealt with the fact that even a mudblood had known he loved Bellatrix and that she had yet to truly love him back.


The Dark Lord had told her to prune her family tree and there would be no stopping her. It ran through her head like a list. There was Sirius, who she had killed two years before. The mudblood who had soiled her sister's line was gone. Now all that remained was the girl her sister had given birth to, the one Bellatrix had tried to kill three times before, the girl who kept slipping through her fingers. What had to be done, had to be done. They were running by on an upper story during the Battle at Hogwarts and for once Bellatrix did not "play with her food". The girl fell probably without even realizing someone had shot the killing curse at her. Rodolphus smiled. Andromeda had fallen in love and married someone but Rodolphus, someone besides her promised fiancé, and now all the ties to the life Andromeda had chosen were severed. Bellatrix had killed her niece for the Dark Lord and her own, personal pride. But he loved that he could imagine it was for him as the pink slid from the girl's hair.


He was back in a cell in Azkaban but there were no Dementors this time. The Minister had gotten rid of them though no one ever told him how. He wasn't exactly updated on the news. And the boy walked by, only a teenager, about eighteen perhaps and he was looking around, looking around with those grey eyes Rodolphus remembered so well. Rodolphus, who had been at the back of his cell, once again on a streak of trying to refuse food and contact for weeks, was drawn forward, staring at the boy. The boy looked away nervously. Someone called the boy's name and he hurried away as Rodolphus dropped to the ground and howled. He knew he loved her because it had been eighteen years since she had died and he was crying for her because she hadn't finished her mission; they had called for a Lupin, a Teddy Lupin who had had the same eyes as his mother, his grandmother, and his great-aunt.

So this one's a little creepier… okay a lot creepier. I wrote Rodolphus as slightly obsessive but that's how I wrote him (or at least how he was in my mind) in The Call and this does follow right along with that story so Rodolphus stayed the same. I also wanted to play with the idea of a more one-sided love. Someday maybe I'll have the courage to write one of these for Snape/Lily. Anyway, have a happy Labor Day weekend and if you don't have a free Monday, well then have a happy weekend!